


Wedding Bell Blues in Ba Sing Se

by rainbowtourmaline



Series: Zutara Week 2017 - My Favourite Things [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ba Sing Se, Childhood Memories, Cold Feet, Crying, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Multi-Faith Ceremony, Post-War, Post-War Fanfiction, Pretend Wedding, Sibling Bonding, Smitten Zuko, Sokka The Makeup Artist, The Earth Kingdom, Wedding Fluff, Weddings, Zutara Week, Zutara Week - Soulmates, Zutara Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 05:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11639472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowtourmaline/pseuds/rainbowtourmaline
Summary: Sokka comes to save the day fifteen minutes before Katara's wedding is due to start.





	Wedding Bell Blues in Ba Sing Se

Sokka was super excited.

Gran Gran was making these cute little knitted socks for his and Suki’s baby, Toph finally bit the bullet and confessed to Aang a couple of days ago and the confession had a happy ending, Katara was getting married to one of his best friends…

And at the reception they were going to serve sweet potato tempura!

Life couldn’t have gotten any sweeter.

“Oh shoot, I can’t find my Water Tribe Wolf Helmet! Sokka, could you check on your sister while I look for it?”

“No problem Dad!” Sokka said as he finished polishing his Wolf Helmet.

“And don’t take any pitstops to the kitchen, we only have fifteen minutes!” Hakoda snickered as Sokka blew a raspberry and stormed off to go see Katara.

Honestly, Sokka didn’t know why dad was making such a fuss about her today! Katara had nerves of steel and had planned this whole thing with her fiancé in less than 4 months. Everyone told them they were crazy, but Katara and Zuko insisted they get married on the Winter Solstice and had planned every last detail of the wedding perfectly. Compared to the sleepless nights and last-minute panic attacks he and Suki had for an entire year before they finally tied the knot, Katara had this whole wedding thing down. 

And it certainly helped that her husband was mega-rich and that she was such an influential person.

“Here comes the bride! All dressed in white! Da da da da da da da da da da!” The young warrior sang merrily as he opened the door to Katara’s room. Bumi kept singing that song for no reason and Sokka laughed to himself at how silly the idea was, wearing white on your wedding day! Weddings weren’t funerals…  

Unless you looked as sad as his sister did.

“Oh.” Sokka froze as he looked at the watery, black marks that were falling down Katara’s white painted cheeks that contrasted greatly with her bright, cheery outfit. She wore an extremely fancy Earth Kingdom wedding gown that was green and had golden trimmings, with red, blue and white flowers adorned all over her hair – as was customary in the Water Tribe (plus there was that whole water/fire symbolism that everybody just ate up). Before she had looked like a happy young bride full of the joys of spring, now she looked like a ghost! “Hi sis!”

‘Oh my gosh what did I do and how do I make it stop?!’ his heart sank at the image of his usually happy, fiercely independent sister, which didn’t look anything like the happy eight-year old who had dreamed of her wedding.

Katara, the sad and unhappy adult version, sniffed and looked away from him.

“Sokka, could you get me some water? I need to be alone right now.” Oh. Oh no. He was not going to fall for Katara’s classic ‘get me a glass of water’ trick for getting rid of unwanted family members and wedding guests! Oh no siree!

“Nah, Dad told me not to go to the kitchen and I’m keeping that promise.” He said as he shut the door and crossed his arms.

“But it’s my wedding day and you’re supposed to do as the bride says! On her wedding day!” Katara snapped and angrily rubbed at her mascara with a clean hand. She grimaced at the way her makeup smudged in the mirror. “Oh, look at what you made me do!”

“Frankly, I think it’s an improvement. You don’t need all that muck on your face.” Sokka said as he approached Katara and put his hands on her shoulders. “Speaking of faces, what’s up with the gloomy one you’re wearing right now? I thought you were excited about today?”

“I am.” Katara sniffed, but Sokka wasn’t convinced.

“Come on, what’s wrong? Are you getting cold feet? Did Zuko cheat on you? Did you find out you’re somehow related? Or that you prefer the ladies over dudes?” Sokka smiled as he took a handkerchief and dabbed Katara’s cheek. “Hey, if you can’t tell your brother what’s wrong, who can you tell? Toph and Aang? It will be the talk of Ba Sing Se and the Fire Nation by tomorrow.”

 Katara cracked a smile.

“There’s my smiley sister.” Katara laughed and finally composed herself.

“Zuko’s not cheating on me.” Katara snickered at the very thought. “I don’t know how you’d even think it was possible that Zuko and I would be related but I’m totally telling dad you said that, and I still like boys as much as girls.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Sokka asked. “Today is meant to be the happiest day of your life! I mean, you’ve dreamed about this day ever since you were eight and you made me marry you and a penguin!”

“It was a pretend ceremony Sokka!” Katara cried. “Plus Pengu looked very dashing in his little suit.”

They both laughed at that memory – finding the fact Pengu ran off as soon as the ceremony was over funnier than they did when they were kids.

“It’s not Zuko…” Katara said, smiling sadly as she turned away from her brother and looked in the mirror. “It’s everyone else… the entire world is going to be watching and seeing if this marriage fails. In less than an hour I’m going to be Zuko’s queen and to be honest, the expectations of a Fire Lady are crushing… I know I was mad at Ursa for leaving her kids, but now I’m starting to understand why she was tempted to run away. I mean, who could put up with that while being married to such a jerk? Zuko’s wonderful and I’m _still_ terrified.”

Sokka didn’t say anything, opting to just quietly listen to his sister vent while he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I love Zuko, with all my heart but… what if that’s not enough?” Katara took the handkerchief Sokka gave her and dried the new tears that came.

“Katara that’s crazy, you’re soulmates!” Sokka said – and not in a sarcastic way.

“You don’t believe in soulmates Sokka.” Katara retorted.

“In this case I do!” Sokka chuckled and while he wasn’t totally behind the idea of soulmates and the red string of fate nonsense, he believed that if such a thing existed that Katara and Zuko were a text book example. The lightening mark on Zuko’s chest and the way Zuko was so content now was proof of that.

“Well, to be honest I think the idea of soulmates is silly.” Katara sniffed. “I used to believe in it when I was younger, but after being with Zuko for a while… I don’t think ‘destiny’ has anything to do with love. In fact, destiny was pretty much against our relationship from the beginning. Zuko and I love each other and work really hard at our relationship, that’s how we’ve gotten to where we are.” 

Sokka smirked when he saw the gears in Katara’s head shift at her sudden realisation. The tears stopped coming and an adorable little smile lit up his sister’s face. She finally looked the way a bride should look on her wedding day.

“Oh.”

“Got ya.” Her brother cackled and gave her another smug pat on the shoulder. “Reverse psychology works every time.”

“Oh reverse psychology my behind!”

“It made you realise that you and Zuko are gonna make it though.” Sokka said, being 100% serious in this moment. “You’re gonna be an awesome queen and Zuko can’t believe his luck that you’re going to marry him. And he doesn’t believe in luck!”

Oh yay – Katara was blushing. That was a positive sign that the marriage wasn’t going to burn out any time soon.

“This is something I would have never in a million years said when we were kids, but I think you’re making the right choice marrying that sparky firebender. And to be honest, I was a pretty dumb kid so my judgement has probably gotten a lot better since then!”

Katara chuckled and buried her head in her brother’s shoulder, giving him the platypus bear hug of his life.

“I love you Sokka.”

He wasn’t gonna cry. He wasn’t gonna cry. He wasn’t gonna cry.

“You too sis.” He squeaked as he returned the hug and tried to blink away his tears. “Watch the armour though, your face is gonna ruin it.”

“My makeup!” Katara gasped and left her brother hanging as she pulled away from the hug to look at the mirror in horror. “It’s awful! What have I done!”

“No need to worry sis, Suki isn’t the only makeup expert in the family!”

* * *

 

The wedding guests – Earth, Water and Fire Nation alike all commented on Katara’s impeccable makeup. Even the old Fire Nation crones who were against this marriage in the first place couldn’t help but comment at how radiant Katara looked as her brother and her father walked her down the aisle, spines straight with pride. “Well, at least their children will be pretty!”

“Why – her makeup looks so natural… but so good. Who is her makeup artist?”

The groom didn’t care about the makeup, the hair or any of the fancy jewels though. When Katara finished walking down the aisle and took Zuko’s hand, the floodgates in his brain finally opened and he burst into tears.

“You look so beautiful!” Zuko wheezed through his hysterics as he platypus-bear hugged his wife, much to the audience’s shock. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen in the ceremony! “I don’t deserve you! I love you so much!”

“Okay buddy, calm down.” Aang, the best man, patted Zuko on the back. “We’ve still got to get through the rest of the ceremony and I’m sure Katara doesn’t want your tears on that lovely dress!”

 The wedding party enjoyed that joke and Katara took the opportunity to mouth ‘thank you’ at her brother. Sokka winked and gave the girl a thumbs up, prepared to finally watch his little sister get married.

This time he did allow himself to cry.

Aang, The Fire Sage, The Earth Kingdom Cleric and North and South Water Tribe High Priests marrying Zuko and Katara were not amused. 

“Could the brother of the bride stop blowing his nose in the middle of the prayers?” The particularly snobby Earth Kingdom Cleric sneered at Sokka.

“Sorry!”

“We’re trying to marry two people here.” The South Water Tribe High Priestess said as if she was a disapproving mother. It didn’t help that she knew Sokka his entire life. “A Fire Lord and one of the saviours of the world! Please have a little decorum Sokka.” 

“Hey! I saved the world too!”

“Sokka, please don’t fight with the High Priestess on our wedding day.”

“Sorry Zuko…” Sokka said, shutting up to stand back and think about that sweet potato tempura. That would get him through the next prayer.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes: 
> 
> -Sweet potato tempura is delicious and if you can, you should all try it at least once. 
> 
> -In China, the culture/s ATLA is kind of based off of, uses the colour white to express mourning in funeral customs. 
> 
> -In one of the specials the ATLA franchise did, the Water Tribe Avatar (not Korra) - married his girlfriend and she wore flowers in her hair during the ceremony. I assume this is a traditional water tribe custom.


End file.
